A small collection of coincidences and a reason to procrastinate.

Sometimes the coincidences show up like confetti sprinkling all over your life. They kind of feel like shimmering little gifts bestowed upon you to give you a nudge in the right direction.

When I stop long enough to notice those bits of confetti and am grateful for them, the more they rain down on me. OK, maybe this is a little too rainbows-and-unicorns-and-fairy-dust-sprinkled-on-top for you, but hey, it works for me.

I don’t know if being busy really makes me feel good, just less guilty, I guess. Brigid writes about how people feel more important when they are busy, leisure time just feels wrong, and more people than ever multitask with their smart phones while on the toilet. Wow, we’re so civilized.

Darn protestant work ethic. Why do we feel so guilty if we are not being productive 24/7?

When did we become Human Doings instead of Human Beings anyway?

In case we forgot, our time here on Earth is limited. To that end Brigid says in her Washington Post article:

Maybe that’s the attraction of busyness. If we never take a moment to stop and think, we don’t have to face that hard truth.

Really, let’s not busy ourselves to death.

And those helpful little nudging coincidences that show up in our lives… I have to sit still long enough to notice them. This is when inspiration happens and creativity shows up, says Brigid:

Even as neuroscience is beginning to show that at our most idle, our brains are most open to inspiration and creativity — and history proves that great works of art, philosophy and invention were created during leisure time — we resist taking time off.

Next time I find myself staring blankly into space, I won’t chalk it up to all the mercury I inhaled when the fluorescent light bulb broke.

Yes, that’s it, it’s my creative moment people!

If you’ve read my blog before, you know I love coincidences.

So, was it a coincidence that I found an article to justify my avoidance of doing my taxes? Works for me.

But one of my fun favorite coincidences was the time the word “witch” was on my mind and then shortly thereafter, as I was leaving the grocery store in Kensington – I saw a witch.

Or the simple little coincidence of the weekly free photo from the graphic site I sometimes use. It just happened to be just the one I needed for this post (the picture with the sprinkly lights over the twigs). It reminded me of confetti and also sort of like a Photo-Shopped version of orbs.

Or when I met a new neighbor at the park, who struck me as a little different, and then I found out he really wasn’t the usual daddy at the playground – since he can read your mind!

Or when I asked myself if it made sense to write a blog at all – does it really matter? Thirty minutes later I got an email from someone saying they just found my site and it “blew them away.” Wow, getting an email like that (and not from an actual family member), blew me away. Did that really happen?

Brigid Shulte spoke at WMG, Amie! Her lecture was so validating. She spoke of how we (particularly moms) rarely have opportunities to be engrossed in any leisure activity deeply enough to reach that zone- where we feel a sense of flow and being lost in time. She also gave a great interview on NPR in the last week or so. I’ll try to find the link for you.
Hope you have awesome snowy downtime today!
🙂

The Wednesday Morning Group gets all the best speakers! I see her book mentioned everywhere – even by Gwyneth Paltrow. My husband even heard her on NPR and told me I should listen to her interview (a few days before I wrote this post). Well if that wasn’t the universe nudging me to check out more of her work, I don’t know what is!